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During the first two weeks of preschool we really emphasize the importance of proper hand washing.

We read the book Those Mean Nasty Dirty Downright Disgusting but…Invisible Germs by Judith Anne Rice. This is a wonderful book with great illustrations on what an earache germ, a headache germ, a sore throat germ, a fever germ and the most downright disgustingest germ of all, the throw up germ, just might look like. Rosa, the smart little girl in the book, knows how to get rid of those terrible germs and she sends them whirling, twirling down the drain. We read this book over and over again.

We practice coughing and sneezing into our elbow. We show how germs spread by using glitter and shaking hands. We talk about the proper steps for hand washing. You know the drill… wet, soap, scrub (sing a little song), rinse and dry. We are even growing germy bread for a science experiment.

What is germy bread? It’s a slice of bread (preferably one that doesn’t have preservatives) which everyone in the class touches with their dirty, moist little hands. Gross, right? Wait a week, and then you can be completely downright disgusted by those not-so invisible germs.

We should have those germs well under control, right?

Sure.

Except that I’m the one who now has the sore throat germ, the headache germ, and the earache germ.

Irony, preschool style.

Mrs. V

On Monday, I will not be surprised if I get asked by a student if I forgot to wash my hands.

… Who sneeze into their elbows. Their teachers will love them forever.

I have definitive evidence as to why sneezes need to be covered.

Last week Wednesday I was the recipient of a full blown uncovered sneeze by a child with an obvious cold. Gross, ewwww, blech… **shudder**

This child also sneezed on about half of the children in the classroom periodically during our class time together.

Student: “Sneezy sneezed on me!”

Teacher: “I know, I’m sorry.” What else could I say?

No matter how many times I asked “Sneezy” to sneeze into his/her elbow, the sneezes continued to blow through our classroom. This child would look right at me after the sneezes and just shrug. Of course, these weren’t little sneezes; these were full force, spit flying, snot-bearing sneezes, and not a single one was covered. Sneezy just did not seem to get it.

On Monday this student ate playdough, off the floor, again, for the bazillionth time. **sigh** And I said, again, for the bazillionth and a half time,”don’t eat the playdough off the floor, it can make you sick.” This student had the nerve to continue to eat the playdough while I was talking to her. AAAARGH! Guess who wasn’t at school today? Guess who has the latest petri dish virus that is making the rounds in our classroom? Guess who will probably eat the playdough off the floor when he/she returns to school?

I so want to say “I told you so.” However, I won’t. At least not out loud.

In other news:

I have recovered from the lastest creepy crud. Thank goodness. Now my poor husband has it. I feel bad for him. It’s miserable, to say the least.

UGH! I’m sick. With what, I don’t know. But I feel like crud. Total and complete crud. I made it through work today, because I wasn’t feeling too awful this morning. But now I want to crawl under my blankets and remain there until spring or until I feel better. Whichever comes first.

So I’ll try and get back to blogging this weekend. Before I do that though, I’d like my mind to not feel like mud, and my body to stop feeling like it’s been hit by a truck.

Yuck,

Mrs. V

Sidenote: The school pictures came back today (already, wow!), and I don’t look too scary, but the kids, oh my, they are adorable. I wish I could post them, but there’s the whole privacy issue thing.